Sparkypants Studios has released a new update for its strategy MOBA RTS Dropzone today. The new update brings a new ranked 3v3 mode, mastery boards, additional daily bounties and some UI improvements.

In the new ranked mode, which unlocks when you hit account level 5, players take turns selecting their pilots. Each team may have the same pilot on their team, but only one of that pilot can be on a team. For example, each team can have Knockout, but only one player on each team can choose Knockout. In addition, players can still use their previously saved loadouts for their pilots.

Here are the full patch notes for today's update:

Gameplay Notes
  • Ranked 3v3 mode has been added
    • Ranked 3v3 mode unlocks at Account Level 5
    • Each player takes turns selecting their pilot
      • Pilot picks are exclusive PER TEAM (Example: Both teams may have one Knockout, but a team cannot have two Knockouts)
    • There is no sideboard for Ranked 3v3
    • Players can use loadouts from any of their saved squads
  • Mastery Boards
    • Complete Quests and Scenarios for rewards with new Mastery Boards
    • 1-rig and 3-rig control Mastery Boards are available
    • Increase your Mastery rank to unlock new customizations
  • Daily Bounties
    • Additional Daily Bounties have been added to the rotation, including:
      • Complete 3 games with a Tank-class rig
      • Complete 3 games with a Gunner-class rig
      • Complete 3 games with a Mechanic-class rig
      • Complete 3 games with a Summoner-class rig
      • Complete 5 games with a Tank-class or Gunner-class rig
      • Complete 5 games with a Mechanic-class or Summoner-class rig
    • Two Daily Bounties have been discontinued from the rotation:
      • Win 1 match
      • Complete 3 matches
  • New Feature Tours
    • A Feature Tour has been added for the Quickmatch Menu
    • A Feature Tour has been added for the Mastery Board
Miscellaneous Notes
  • Upper Right Profile Display
    • The upper right display has been reworked to clearly show level progression, crates and crafting
    • Jovian and Feds buttons now have tooltips to explain how to obtain Jovians and Feds
    • The Crates and Crafting buttons have been improved to explicitly state their functionality
    • The Player Name and Level area now shows the current level, progress bar and next level that will be obtained
    • Clicking the Player Name in the upper right display will now take the Player to their Profile page
    • Upper right display now shows gear unlocks for next level. Gear cards for this upcoming gear will show when hovered over
  • Progress Pop Ups and animations have been added for the following events to mark significant progress and status updates to the appropriate areas
    • Player Level Ups
    • Pilot Level Ups
    • Mode Unlocks (3VAI, 3V3, Ranked 1V1 and 3V3 etc.)
    • Unlock Mastery Type
    • Bounty Completion
    • Contract Completion
    • Mastery Node Completion
    • Ranked Division Promotion
  • Feature Gate
    • Random Daily Bounties will now be received until the player has completed the initial set of bounties
  • Progress Animation
    • From the Rewards screen, XP and Jovian rewards animate to the upper right with animated increments
  • Play Flow Panels have been improved to support the new Mastery Boards
  • Tutorial transmissions have been simplified to more directly state what players must do to complete the tutorials and what they will receive when they do
  • Ground Pounder FX has been updated
  • Post-Match Chat now starts in the half-size, open state in the results screen
  • Two new musical tracks have been added
Bug Fixes
  • Fixed an exploit where players could use persistent AoE abilities to prevent the Kavash boss from auto-attacking
  • Fixed an issue where the minimap would stop right-click accepting input
  • Fixed an issue where Summoners would slide for a short period after teleporting with Hive Link
  • Fixed an issue where the quickmatch UI would disappear if the player continuously entered and left Solo Modes
  • Fixed an issue where kills earned by summoned turrets and goons did not count towards the Rig’s kill count
  • Fixed an issue where Post-Match chat appeared in Solo Modes
  • Fixed an issue where attempting to join a Custom Lobby while matchseeking did not warn the player that they would be removed from matchseeking
  • Fixed an issue where the match objectives were not shown during the Match Basics tutorial’s draft sequence
  • Minor localization fixes
  • Minor SFX fixes
  • Fixed an exploit where players could use persistant AoE abilities to prevent the Kavash boss from auto-attacking.
Known Issues
  • AVG antivirus software may incorrectly flag the Dropzone client as malicious. We have reached out to them to whitelist the client. In the meantime, you should be able to manually allow your antivirus software to allow the Dropzone client to run
  • There are known issues with words bleeding outside of their bounding boxes for every language other than English. Fixes are on the way
  • Locking Observer slots in Custom Matches only works when both slots are empty
  • The Private Match setting only works when the game is already created, so someone can join in-between

Dropzone is currently available as a free-to-play title on PC via Steam.